Movies (and TV) at the Law Library

Dramatizes the harrowing events of 1957, a key year in Algeria's struggle for independence from France. Recreates the tumultuous Algerian uprising against the occupying French in the 1950s. As violence escalates on both sides, the French torture prisoners for information and the Algerians resort to terrorism in their quest for independence. Children shoot soldiers at point-blank range, women plant bombs in cafés. The French win the battle, but ultimately lose the war as the Algerian people demonstrate that they will no longer be suppressed.

The story of a lawyer defending a group of aboriginals accused of murder. The lawyer feels the pull of magic forces beneath the surface of civilization.

"Chronicles an emotionally charged year in the lives of four Filipino women as they leave their homeland to teach in Baltimore's inner-city schools. With their increased salaries, they hope to transform their families' impoverished lives back home. But the women also bring idealistic visions of the teacher's craft and of life in America, which soon collide with Baltimore's tough realities"--Container

"In 2005 several former members of the Black Panther Party were held in contempt [of court] and jailed for refusing to testify before a San Francisco grand jury investigating a police shooting that took place in 1971. The government alleged that Black radical groups were involved in the 34-year old case in which two men armed with shotguns attacked the Ingleside Police Station resulting in the death of a police sergeant and the injuring of a civilian clerk"--Container.

When a blonde sorority queen is dumped by her boyfriend, she decides to follow him to law school to get him back and, once there, learns she has more legal savvy than she ever imagined.

In 1950s England, slow-witted Derek Bentley falls in with a group of petty criminals led by Chris Craig, a teenager with a fondness for American gangster films.

Fletcher Reed is a fast-talking attorney and habitual liar. When his son Max blows out the candles on his fifth birthday cake, he has just one wish--that his dad will stop lying for 24 hours. When Max's wish comes true, Fletcher discovers that his biggest asset--his mouth--has become his biggest liability.

Michael "Mick" Haller is a slick, charismatic Los Angeles criminal defense attorney who operates out of the back of his Lincoln Town Car. Having spent most of his career defending petty, gutter-variety criminals, Mick unexpectedly lands the case of a lifetime.

Follows four cases over a two-year period that were brought before South Africa's Truth and Reconciliation Commission which investigates the crimes of apartheid, by bringing together victims and perpetrators to relive South Africa's brutal history. In so doing South Africa is showing the rest of the world that even the most bitter conflicts can be addressed through honesty and communication, providing the most definitive record of one of the most ambitious and innovative attempts at social reconciliation without precedent in human history.

A documentary on the Mexican-American civil rights movement. The film tells the story of one key injustice, the refusal, by a small-town funeral home in Texas after World War II, to care for a dead soldier's body 'because the whites wouldn't like it,' and shows how the incident sparked outrage nationwide and contributed to the Voting Rights Act of 1965.

The story of Richard and Mildred Loving, an interracial couple, whose challenge of their anti-miscegenation arrest for their marriage in Virginia led to a legal battle that would end at the US Supreme Court.

In Ireland in the 1960s, four women were sent to the Magdalene sisterhood asylum because of 'sinful' behavior. They all had to work in the laundry, where the strict nuns would break everyone's wills through sadistic punishment. Based on a true story.

Screen version of the life of Malcolm X, who through his religious conversion to Islam, found the strength to rise up from a criminal past to become an influential civil rights leader.

Chancellor of England, Sir Thomas More, is placed in a difficult position when Henry VIII breaks with the Catholic Church over its refusal to annul his marriage to Katherine of Aragon so he can marry Anne Boleyn. Henry demands More's endorsement of this act. Torn between his conscience and duty to the crown, Sir Thomas chooses to say nothing.

Millionaire Jewish entrepreneur Arthur Goldman (Schell) rules a financial empire from his Manhattan penthouse. He is given to passionate and capricious ravings on a variety of subjects. His growing paranoia, dismissed by those close to him, is confirmed when he is kidnapped by Israeli agents and brought to trial in Israel for crimes against humanity. Is he Arthur Goldman or is he Adolph Dorf, former SS colonel who headed a Nazi concentration camp? As the trial progresses, the question becomes more confusing.

The story of a man who becomes a legend and an important political figure by falsely claiming he shot a ruthless gunman (Liberty Valance).

A young assistant District Attorney uses a prostitute to indict a gang of racketeers, its czar, and his underlings.

A young Thurgood Marshall, the first African-American Supreme Court Justice, battles through one of his career defining cases.

Take a journey deep inside the American style of debt, where things seem fine as long as the minimum monthly payment arrives on time. Shocking and incisive, it paints a picture of a national nighmare, which is all too real for most.

In 1943, Gonzalo Méndez sued the Westminster School District of Orange County, California in order to end segregation in the public schools. This court case set an important legal precedent for ending segregation in the United States. Interviews with Sylvia Mendez, Sandra Mendez Duran, Felicitas Mendez. Professor Gilbert Gonzalez from the University of California, Irvine is also interviewed.

"Attorney Michael Clayton is a 'fixer' the go-to guy when his powerful New York law firm wants a mess swept under the rug. But now he's handed a crisis even he may not be able to fix. The firm's top litigator in a $3-billion case has gone from advocate to whistleblower. And the more Michael tries to undo the damage, the more he's up against forces that put corporate survival over human life --including Michael's."--Publisher.

In this Oscar-winning classic, a Macy's Department Store Santa who insists his name is Kris Kringle teaches everyone a lesson in love, faith and the value of imagination.

Critically acclaimed political drama about a father's search for his missing son in Latin America.

Former Wall Street Journal reporter Asra Nomani returns to her hometown in West Virginia and fights for social change within the local mosque. She sees signs of trouble: exclusion of women, intolerance toward non-believers, and suspicion of the West. She begins a campaign to drag the mosque's practices into the 21st century, triggering a heated battle between tradition and modernity.

Jefferson Smith is a small town idealist who answers the call to duty when he's unexpectedly named to fill a vacant seat in the U.S. Senate. Determined to do some good, he sponsors a bill to create a national boy's camp, unaware it threatens to undermine a graft scheme sponsored by his home state's crooked political machine. Framed and threatened with expulsion, Jefferson takes to the Senate floor to prove his innocence.

In this fact-based story, a convict is confined to the dungeons of Alcatraz for three years in isolation after a failed escape. When he at last emerges from the total darkness, he's confused, savage, barely human, and he immediately kills the stoolie who ratted on his escape. It's an open-and-shut case of Murder One. But his resolute attorney puts Alcatraz and its sadistic associate warden on trial in his client's behalf.

When a 15-year-old black male is arrested for the murder of Mary Ann Stephens, everyone involved in the case--from investigators to journalists--is ready to condemn him, except for his public defence lawyer, Patrick McGuiness. A true tale of murder and injustice.

In this courtroom thriller, Chicago attorney Ann Talbot (Jessica Lange) agrees to defend her Hungarian immigrant father Mike Laszlo (Armin Mueller-Stahl) against accusations of heinous war crimes committed 50 years earlier. As the trial unfolds, Ann probes for evidence that will not only establish his innocence but also lay to rest her own agonizing doubts about his past.

Two carefree pals mistakenly arrested and charged with murder are defended by the cousin of one of them (Vinny), a former auto mechanic of Brooklyn who just passed his bar exam after his sixth try. Vinny's never been in court and this case quickly turns into a hysterical escapade.

A fictionalized account of the first major successful sexual harassment case in the U.S. - Jenson vs. Eveleth Mines, where a woman who endured a range of abuse while working as a miner filed and won a landmark 1984 lawsuit.

Explores the history, politics, and philosophy behind the Nuremberg Trials through contemporary film footage and interviews with those who played significant roles as prosecutors, translators, and investigators.

Examines the International Military Tribunal, convened from November 20, 1945 to October 1, 1946, in the Nuremberg Palace of Justice, in which the prosecution entered indictments against twenty-four "major war criminals" and against six "criminal organizations": Hitler's Cabinet, the leadership corps of the Nazi party, the SS (party police) and SD (security polic), the Gestapo, the SA and the general staff and high command of the army.

The Nuremberg Trials revealed the full scope of Nazi Germany's atrocities and ended in the execution of many of the top Nazi leaders. Follow the historic trials from accusations through executions.

"In 1942, Fred Korematsu was an average 23-year-old California native working as a shipyard welder. But when he refused to obey Executive Order 9006, which sent 120,000 Americans of Japanese ancestry into internment camps, he became something extraordinary, a civil rights champion." -- container.

An angry mob kills a man after a popular rancher is murdered.

One night in the New Orleans slums, vicious hoodlum Blackie and his friends kill an illegal immigrant who won too much in a card game. When Dr. Reed confirms the dead man had pneumonic plague he must find and inoculate the killers.

A moving story of a first-year Harvard Law School student who comes to terms with his dreams in America's most competitive school. Hart finds he must survive much more than the pressures, all-night cramming and insecurities he expected. He becomes fearful of a brilliant professor, who terrorizes some, inspires others and who easily separates the men from the boys.

Dramatization of the life of Joan of Arc centering on her trial and execution.

The French General Staff, safely behind the lines, sends orders for what amounts to a suicide mission. To cover up their fatal blunder, three soldiers are arrested and made scapegoats. Captures the spirit of Humphrey Cobb's novel in presenting a harsh attack on the futility of war in general and World War I in particular. A blistering indictment of military politics.

Two Supreme Court Justices have been murdered. A lone law student turns her suspicions about the deaths into a speculative brief that sends shock waves into the highest levels of government. She finds herself embroiled in a terrifying web of intrigue extending to the highest levels of government.

Based on the true story of the notorius Hustler publisher who was sued by the Religious Right and paralyzed by a fanatic's bullet. Chronicles Flynt's raunchy business savvy, his wildly unconventional marriage and his infamous courtroom antics.

A young Philadelphia lawyer stricken with AIDS seeks assistance from a homophobic personal injury attorney when a prestigious Philadelphia law firm fires him for incompetence.

"Tells how an abandoned WWII concentration camp for Japanese Americans was transformed into a symbol of retrospection and solidarity for people of all ages, races and nationalities in our post 9/11 world"--Container.

A documentary about the global activist movement to improve access to AIDS treatment. This program examines the national and international grassroots responses to the AIDS epidemic, depicting activists' successes in bringing affordable treatment to the poor.

Rusty Sabich's been swept up in an obsessive affair with a coworker in the prosecutor's office. When she is murdered, he's asked to lead the investigation. Then, astonishingly, he's accused of the crime. He's the perfect suspect and his fight to clear his name pulls him into a whirlpool of lies and secrets.

A Chicago altar boy is accused of murdering the archbishop and a publicity hungry local attorney decides to defend him.

A fact-based interracial gay love story of two men incarcerated in the infamous South African Robin Island prison in the 18th century. Claas Blank, a Koi herder was unjustly imprisoned for stealing cattle. Rijkhaart Jacobsz, a withdrawn Dutch sailor, was imprisoned for the crime of homosexuality. The two were placed on trial for sodomy and the film is based partly on court transcripts from the time.